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Monday, September 20, 2010

Yesterday KCR said that everyone born and raised in Telangana is a Telangana.

The Telangana Rashtra Samiti president, Mr K. Chandrasekhar Rao, turned the T-line upside down, stating that everyone born in Telangana would have all rights to government jobs when the region gets statehood.

The new diktat means that a child of a person belonging to either Andhra or Rayalaseema will be considered a Telanganite if he is born in the region.

I welcome this stand coming from KCR. I am actually happy that he made such a sensible statement. However, some Telanganas have objections to this.

Telangana lawyers and different joint action committees were not amused by this sudden deviation by the TRS chief.

Some statehood units have threatened to stage protests to force Mr Rao to abandon his stand.

I think it is time we educate our own Telangana people on what future Telangana means to all of us. We have been partially successful in telling our people why we want Telangana. [And I have failed miserably in trying to reach out to Andhra brothers].

Sunday, September 19, 2010

The very basis of Telangana movement is hatred towards Andhra and Seema people. This is sadly true. If that were not the case Telangana would have formed long ago.

That is so sad that some Andhras have to blackmail us this way. It is like British saying to Indians, ‘as long as you hate us, we will not give you freedom’. I understand that many Andhras got tired of my examples from Indian Independence movement. Therefore, I will give you other analogies. It is like White Americans telling Black Americans, ‘as long as you hate us, we will keep you as slaves’. And for those who think our relationship is not that of Whites and Blacks, here is another analogy. It is like a rapist telling the victim, ‘as long as you hate me, I will continue to rape you’.

Is it not the time for Andhras to introspect instead of asking Telanganas to stop hating them? Ideally, it should have been that Andhras ask themselves, ‘why do Telanganas hate Andhras? Is there a reason why Telanganas may be very angry with us?’ Why there are no Andhras who admit their guilt, apologize, and make amends? Why doesn’t a single Andhra leader or commenter suggest implementing GO610 right away to win the hearts of Telanganas? Why do they continue to coerce us, blackmail us, and ridicule us, our agitations and our leaders instead of making attempts for reconciliation?

Andhras keep insisting that the current Telangana Movement is violent. So I ask myself, is it a nonviolent or violent movement? I am of the opinion that it is a nonviolent movement. So, how do you characterize stone pelting and bus burning? I still consider them to be nonviolent, not legal, but still nonviolent. [Purists may not agree with me here]. While the policeman has the legal right to arrest that protestor, that protestor has the inalienable right to fight for freedom defying the authority that has been suppressing him.

A struggle for freedom first tries to explore the available tools – democratic, legal, and electoral. When all such tools fail to deliver, it will turn into a mass movement. A mass movement will invariably use expressions of defiance. The defiance is directed against the authority and the tools of authority which is oppressing or suppressing the protesting people denying their freedoms. People of Telangana express their ire against the state by the defying the first tool of authority that they encounter – the armed forces. The other objects of authority are usually public property, because they are also the symbols of the oppressing authority. Some of the acts of defiance used by Telangana against their authorities are stone pelting and bus burning. As long as you do not hurt a person and cause bodily injury, as long as you do not damage private property, I would consider it to be nonviolent movement (may not be legal, but still nonviolent).

Thursday, September 16, 2010

The youth in Telangana are frustrated. They are frustrated because they have been protesting and agitating for nearly ten months now, but there is no sign of Telangana or of a positive indication that Telangana will be formed. Many doubts remain. The detractors from Seemandhra seem to be winning over Telanganas once again.

Our peaceful agitations and protests don’t seem to yield results. They are seen as a sign of weakness by our detractors. Andhras taunt us saying Telanganas are not capable of achieving statehood. One director of a movie provoked Telanganas saying, ‘you cannot even stop my movie from screening, how will you achieve Telangana?’ Recently, some Andhras celebrated when the APPSC examinations were held with the help of armed forces in spite of major opposition from Telanganas. They rejoiced that Telanganas were crushed while they prevailed. In such an atmosphere there is a tendency amongst Telangana youth to take the route of violence to achieve faster results.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

On a daily basis, people are dying in Kashmir. These are ordinary people, civilians, young men, students, and boys. These are not dreaded terrorists or militants. These are not Pakistani infiltrators. They are Kashmiri people living Kashmir. And they are being shot dead by Indian armed forces, whose guns are bullets are paid for by my taxes.

Yesterday, more than 15 Kashmiris were killed by Indian security forces taking the toll to 85 since June 2010. The people came out defying curfew in almost all parts of Kashmir Valley, in Srinagar, Baramulla, Sopore, Anantnag, Pampore, Charar-e-Sharif, Budgam, Pulwama. The message is clear.Kashmiris seek freedom. Freedom from Indians.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Tell me if you know of a genuinely hard-working guy who is unemployed? Opportunities are for everyone. The fittest always survives. Others make excuses...

Many people who have absolutely no clue what Evolution is or what Darwin’s Theory is often swear by ‘Survival of the Fittest’ argument. First, Darwin and evolution scientists prefer terms like natural selection, sexual selection, etc, to explain the drivers for evolution instead of ‘survival of the fittest’. Second, Survival of the Fittest amongst humans stands as a discredited notion that spawned fascist movement of the early 20th century resulting in more than 50 million people dead. Right now only Aryan supremacists believe in this. The concept was used by White Europeans to legitimize their slavery of the ‘inferior’ races, spawning discriminations based on race, ethnicity and sex, and colonization of ‘uncivilized’ countries.

To swear by ‘survival of the fittest’ is no longer proud thing to be, the way swearing by Nazism is no longer proud thing to be. But India continues to be an exception. Here in India you will find a great fan following for Adolf Hitler, and the educated and the elite swearing by flawed and misconceived notions of ‘survival of the fittest’.

Humans fight ‘survival of the fittest’

Contrary to what most Indians believe, humans consistently fight natural selection, the natural order that drives evolution. Humans fight the order of nature and that’s what makes them humane. We don’t let our weak die, even if they happen to be beggars or homeless, or even our enemies. We take care of our weak; we hospitalize them, we use medicines, we use inoculation, we use vaccines, we use artificial organs, and we do surgery. Even the weakest of humans gets a chance to reproduce and thereby contribute to the gene pool. The weak doesn’t get eliminated as is done in natural selection. Instead, even the weak humans continue to add their gene content to future generations with equal vigor.

About the Speaker: Prof. Kodandaram is a professor in Political Science at Osmania University, Hyderabad, completely his MA and PhD from Osmania University and M.Phil from JNU. He is a famous social activist also serving as the president of Telangana Vidhyavanthula Vedhika (TVV) and presently he is the convener of Telangana-Joint Action Committee (TG-JAC). He has vast experience in educating people and a national human activist.

Monday, September 06, 2010

The current agitation over APPSC (Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission) exams has once again pitted Telanganas against Seemandhra dominated Government of Andhra Pradesh. Telangana students, and many leaders, including those from ruling Congress Party wanted to delay these exams so that they consider the demand from Telanganas to include 42% reservation in these posts. Telanganas allege discrimination towards them in final selection of the candidates. There are stories of a Telangana candidate getting 655 marks in the written exam but only 21 in the interview while a Seemandhra candidate getting 590 in the written exam gets 88 marks in interview. The Seemandhra person gets in while Telangana person doesn’t. Can a person with very high score in written exams get very low score in interviews? Yes it can happen. Can we deduce discrimination from such isolated incident? Not really. But when it happens consistently, which the Telanganas allege, there is a need to look into the matter. Telangana people believe there is discrimination in APPSC exams and seek 42% quota to represent their population in the state citing Gentlemen’s Agreement.

Sunday, September 05, 2010

[This follows the post titled ‘When will these state divisions stop?’ Here I discuss some recommendations and other observations. You have to read the previous post before you read this.]

There are two initial conditions for the current set of problems we are facing where many regions are clamoring for new states.

Problem 1: The center was averse, reluctant and sometimes downright opposed to formation of new states in India equating it to balkanization of the country.

Problem 2: India being a weak-federal strong-central country, the incumbent states like to remain big so that their bigger strength in the Parliament gives them better negotiating terms.

These two problems form the premise for most of the problems that we are facing with various neglected regions in India. There are two ground realities that emanate from the diversity of this country.

Reality 1: Though there are many states in India, we do not recognize various kinds of identities in India. While some identities got statehoods, others did not. Many states have one majority identity clubbed with few or many minority identities.

Reality 2: All individuals and all identities work with self-interest. If unchecked, a majority and privileged group could inadvertently dominate and marginalize the minority and underprivileged group within a state, even when no preset agenda or a plan exists.

Over a prolonged period of time, the above two problems combined with above two ground realities could result in the following situation.

Situation

Imagine a state where region A forms the majority and the privileged while region B forms the minority and the underprivileged. Reality 1 and Reality 2 suggests that there should be safeguards, protections, guarantees and reservations to protect people of region B. In most states of India those safeguards and protections do not exist because of shortsightedness and reluctance of India to recognize those identities as valid constituents.

And where those safeguards and protections exist, like in Andhra Pradesh, the region A could still flout them with impunity using the clout of majority; and there is nothing the region B could do other than complain, protest, agitate, and in the worst case scenario ask for separate statehood.

When the region B clamors for separate statehood, the incumbent state will be unwilling to let go of this region no matter what, because of Problem 2 – they don’t want to become smaller. All efforts by region B to get attention from the Center will be snubbed, because of Problem 1 – center doesn’t want to create more states.

So how do we get out of such situations? Here I propose some of the possible methods.